The behaviour of housed dairy cattle with and without pasture access: A review

Abstract

With more dairy cows being housed indoors, for at least part of the year, it is important to understand how housing impacts on 'normal behaviour' and the implications for cow welfare. For cows on pasture, nutritional requirements and climatic conditions are the major concerns, whilst indoor housing systems can restrict natural behaviours and reduce health as incidences of lameness and mastitis increase. When given a choice to be at pasture or in cubicle housing, studies have shown that time of day, season, and where feed is provided can influence preference. Previous experience also had a big effect on pasture preference: the longer calves/heifers/cows were reared without experience of pasture the stronger their preference for housing. The ontogeny of grazing also requires pasture experience i.e. the instinctive foraging behaviour of calves is to suckle and they have to learn through experience how to graze. These results raise the question: if cattle are to be housed for part of the year, would it be better to house them continuously? Other results would suggest not, as there are clear production, health and welfare benefits to pasture access. Cows at pasture had lower levels of lameness and mastitis, and cows with free access to pasture and indoor housing also produced more milk than those continuously housed. Approximately half of this extra milk was attributed to grass intake, and increased lying, improved comfort and/or lower stress probably accounted for the rest.Although incorporating free access between housing and pasture is difficult on many farms, it is postulated that developments in precision livestock farming offer the potential to provide a technological solution to this problem. These research findings could be used as the basis to design novel, adaptive housing that responds to cow behaviour. The aim would be to incorporate the best aspects of pasture with the best aspects of housing to provide an environment that meets the needs of the cows all year around.

Dairy cow preference for access to an outdoor pack in summer and winter

“…This conclusion is consistent with previous work showing a preference for pasture when cows were provided a choice between pasture and an outdoor sand pack (Smid et al, 2018). Pasture allows cows to engage in grazing behavior, possibly a rewarding activity for cows (Charlton and Rutter, 2017), which may explain this preference. In addition, the space available on the outdoor pack (i.e., 12 m 2 per cow) was much smaller than the space on the pasture provided in previous studies (Legrand et al, 2009;Charlton et al, 2011bCharlton et al, , 2013.…”

Diet change from a system combining total mixed ration and pasture to confinement system (total mixed ration) on milk production and composition, blood biochemistry and behavior of dairy cows

“…Since these behaviors along with the grazing in the dairy cow are associated with good well-being and comfort (Arnott, Ferris, & O'Connell, 2017;Higashiyama, Nashiki, Narita, & Kawasaki, 2007;Kilgour, 2012;Tucker, Weary, & Fraser, 2004), it is possible that the change of system and the difficulty to adapt during the first days resulted in worse welfare. Ruminating and lying are associated behaviors and occur when cows are at rest (Schirmann, Chapinal, Weary, Heuwieser, & von Keyserlingk, 2012), and in more comfortable housing conditions cows lie more frequently (Charlton & Rutter, 2017), highlighting the importance of these behaviors as welfare indicators. In our study, before the change, cows were in a mixed system, and possibly preferred to perform behaviors of ruminating and lying more in pasture than in confinement, where they do not find a comfortable ground to lie on, as it has been reported in other works (Arnott et al, 2017;Charlton & Rutter, 2017).…”

“…For example, in summer, high environmental temperatures and humidity (heat stress) affects the production and milk composition, health and reproduction (Bernabucci et al, 2010(Bernabucci et al, , 2015Cowley, Barber, Houlihan, & Poppi, 2015;Jordan, 2003). Thus, due to the fluctuation in the availability of forage that occurs at different times of the year (Bargo, Muller, Delahoy, & Cassidy, 2002;Chilibroste, Soca, Mattiauda, Bentancur, & Robinson, 2007;Wales et al, 2013) and adverse weather conditions (heat stress), confinement system with access to shade is used as an alternative management in dairy cattle to reduce the negative effects on milk production and improve animal welfare (Charlton & Rutter, 2017;Schütz et al, 2010;). In this sense, total mixed ration (TMR) has been strategically incorporated to increase total dry matter (DMI) and energy intake to ensure an adequate balanced supply of nutrients in quality and quantity throughout the year.…”

Performance, milk fatty acid composition and behaviour of high‐yielding Holstein dairy cows given a limited grazing period

“…In combination, these results suggest that when TMR is the major component of a cows DM intake, their preference may be to wait for the TMR if it is not immediately available, even if this results in a reduced total DMI. Alternatively, evidence suggests that grazing is a partially learned behaviour (Charlton & Rutter, ), and thus, limited early grazing exposure or limited incentive to graze may limit the intake of grass, although all the cows in the current study had extensive access to pasture prior to the study.…”

“…Lying is a high‐priority activity for dairy cows and is essential for health, welfare and productivity (Charlton & Rutter, ). When soil conditions are dry, and temperature and humidity temperate, cows have been reported to show a preference for lying outside (Krohn, Munksgaard, & Jonasen, ; Legrand, Keyserlingk, & Weary, ).…”